Blog To Control Your Own Journalistic Slant

I read the most fascinating business story on David Meerman Scott’s WebInkNow blog.
As a professional ghost blogger, I make my living doing blog marketing for companies.  But, after reading the WebInkNow blog post, I think I’ll give myself a new title – Brand Journalist!

The true tale Scott referred to in his post began in 2008 in Port Wentworth near Savannah, Georgia. There was a tremendous explosion at the Imperial Sugar Company plant, with fires that burned almost two weeks.  Meanwhile, the media relied on search engines to put together stories about Imperial for their TV, radio, and newspaper sound bites and articles.  As you may imagine, this information was not necessarily complete or up-tp-date, and certainly some of it was not what Imperial’s owners would have chosen to say about the company.

So, after the crisis had passed, Imperial hired a veteran CBS news reporter, a print journalist, and a photojournalist and literally started a news service of its own.  Now, Imperial can control the stories by putting out accurate information on its own website and through press releases.

Not to stretch a point, I believe a business – whatever business or professional practice that is – can do the same, namely exercise journalistic control through blogging.  Even the best-designed websites are rarely flexible enough to allow day-to-day, even hour-by-hour updating.  With blog posts, businesses have the ability to put out the news about themselves with their own slant on it!

And, just as Imperial Sugar hired professionals to generate timely releases, many business owners with little time to manage social media and to create content, can, through hiring a blogging professional, be assured of putting their own "spin" on reports about their company. What’s more, material that is both recent and frequently posted is more likely to be indexed by search engines and help the business "get found"!  Then, too, if ever there is any negative news about the company, the blog is the perfect place to field questions and comments head-on.

Henceforth, not only will I think of my blog posts on behalf of my clients as "press releases", I plan to think of myself as a Brand Journalist, helping to clarify the particular
expertise of each client and helping set the facts straight! "

Extra! Extra! Blog all about it!"